A lunch time tour of the Patch today in the company of Martin Gebauer proved productive with plenty to see. There were a couple of over-wintering Chiffchaff down near the boat moorings, a rather unusual place to see this species at any time of year. By the river just north of the boats were a couple of REDSHANK and a smart pair of drake GOOSANDER. The floods themselves were absolutely heaving with Geese, there must have been getting on for a thousand of them, both Greylags and Canadas as well as three of the feral WHITE-FRONTED GEESE. There were good numbers of Wigeon and Teal, with modest counts of SHOVELER and a handful of PINTAIL. There was also the first GADWALL of the year, a bird I more usually associate with spring on the Meadow. Lapwing numbers were vast as well with at least 200 birds there - far more than we usual get at winter time on the Meadow. Add in hundreds of Black-headed Gulls, mostly on the flooded grass in the Hinterland and it all made for a remarkably birdy scene.
We did have a tramp around Burgess Field which as almost completely deserted. However at the north end we happened to flush a couple of WOODCOCK from the long grass, a great find as this species is very hard to come by on the Patch and is only ever seen on accidental flushings such as this. So all in all some nice year ticks, especially the Woodcock which was a personal Patch tick.
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| The boat moorings Chiffchaff courtesy of George Best, taken a couple of days ago |
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